I was lucky enough to have been included with a group of ADVRiders from Richmond Virginia that went south to Greer South Carolina this past weekend 9/20/2013 – 9/22/2013 to compete for a spot on the BMW GS Trophy Challenge Team USA. I competed for a spot in the 2012 GS Trophy and qualified third in the east coast events, however I was unable to acquire enough Facebook votes to secure a spot. Luckily this year there is no Facebook voting involved in the team selection (there should be a large roar from the crowd right about here!) Once again I was blown away by the friendliness, selflessness, rider ability, and love of the sport and its riders that Adventure Riders are known for. Honestly I had more fun working with two other riders pushing a blown up F800 through a 100 yards torture course than I did riding (you will love those pictures). What follows is a short account of my attempt to qualify for the 2014 international event.
If any of the other riders would like to post your accounts in this thread please feel free.
The Group:
Rider #22 – Halfplate (Black 1200gs with a gray klim pants black helmet) Placed 5th overall and 8th in the finals
Rider #26 – ToddZacker (Black 1200gs white helmet) Placed 26th overall
Rider #16 – DrWhipit (Black F800gs black suit) Placed 20th overall
Rider #? – EddyAlveraz (F800gs black suit with yellow stripe) Placed 25th overall
Rider#25 – Cliffy109 (G650 X Challenge BMW suit) Placed 45th overall

Day 1 (Friday 9/20): Registration and check-in followed by on-road skills tests
78 Riders from all over the country should up to test their skill. The riders are really who make this type of riding what it is, and even in the crucible of competition it was still all bs and back slaps. I swear I didn’t hear one bad word about anyone the whole time I was there, everyone cheered everyone else and was always willing to lend a hand.
Here is Toddzacker killing the invasive maneuverer test. This test had the rider serve around a line of cones. The catch was for every mph under 35 at the apex you lost points. You had to enter that turn at something like 50 or 60 to make it. In this picture Todd is starting to slide his rear tire…. None of us made it to 35mph.
This test had you move a cone from a barrel on your left to one on your right, than from the right to the left. Sounds easy right….. Yea okay, the rider has to reach over the bike and pick it up, there is no time to switch hands. DrWhipit killed this thing!
This is me working through the 720 degree roundy round. You enter a ring of cones and make two right turn 360 degrees each than exit make a u turn and do it again to the left. The only way to make that turn was full lock on the bars and to carry enough speed to also lean to the bike.
This is Cliffy on the X Challenge and Todd on his black beauty killing the first of many slalom courses.
These are just a few of the 13 skills test we competed in that day. There was everything from the impossible slow race to the balance beam I tried to wheelie over. All these test where difficult, even for seasoned riders. It’s one thing to be able to do a full lock turn but it’s something else entirely to do it on command in a coned circle with a bunch or judges.
At the end of day one I was in 10th place overall and everyone was ready to get these GS’s dirty.

Day 2 (Saturday 9/21): Dirt day
The morning was split into two areas one was a judge skill test and the other was the “fun zone”. Half the riders did their skills tests and the other half played, than we swapped.
The skill test started with a steep (and I mean steep) uphill run that it peaked over and went down just as steep, at the bottom there was a 90 degree right.
This poor guy went flying over the peak and his tail box puked its contents all over the hill. Looked like a jack in the box.

This guy is my hero. When he crested the peak it looks like he grabbed some front brake and went down, than his lovely GSA decide to flip all the way to the bottom. Everyone was okay and he rode that bike all the way to a standing ovation and the award for being “Unstoppable”. Even more impressive is this guy’s day job, he is a navigator in an F-22!

Here is Todd killing the rock pile then showing us what he thought of it. Nothing like a woopty woop culvert ride, it was like a county fair ride. Then there was a gravel pit. We rode a S curve through deep deep gravel. I think this guy got extra points for pelting the crowd with high velocity gravel.
This was the second rough get off of the morning. The rider lost his grove and fell down, luckily the only damage was a broken valve cover cover.

The afternoon we ran a series of skills test on the BMW X5 training course, which consists of obstacles made of rock cemented into the ground. Think of the steepest flag stone drive way you have ever seen, than make it steeper add rough rocks, off chamber spiraled turns, oh and top it all off with a heavy rain. I rode this same course in 2012 and it wasn’t that bad, but in 2013 it was raining which made this thing evil! It also meant no one bothered to snap any pictures. I really surprised myself on this serious of test and place first for the afternoon event.
We did manage to get some pictures of the final test of the day which was a water crossing, a rather deep water crossing, actually I think this could be considered boating.

Four or five bikes ingested water and stalled out, only one went down in the water, filling its crack case as well as the heads. This video is of Todd’s bike spitting all the water back out. “son now what sound does the motorcycle make?..... choo chooooo!” We spent a few hours pumping water out of bikes and changing oil that liked like lattes.

Day 3 (Sunday 9/22): Simi Finals
Day 3 took the top 12 riders from the previous 2 days riding and put them through the ringer. All 12 where equalized in points and motorcycles, we all rode brand new f800s and started with zero points.
The morning was a un-scored team work test. The 12 where broken up into teams of 3 and given one f800, we than had to push, pull and ride that thing through a torture trail. It would’ve have been so bad if I hadn’t ripped the clutch clean out of the bike within sight of the start line. My team rallied and we man handle that thing all the way to the end by hand.

We worked together to overcome everything those crazy judges could throw at us, all the while signing “I don’t want a pickle, I just wanna ride my morotcickle!” Dan, Jake, and I(I am in the helmet), you wouldn’t find a better group of guys anywhere. BTW we are standing on that dang f800 in this picture.

The afternoon of day 3 was where the separated the men from the boys. The final skill test was the ultimate deciding factor, it all came down to how well you rode this course.

Start gate was a metal pipe

Than through the river rock

Easy left and through the rut

Than the barrel slalom

Over the Rock pile

Across the tires

U turn in the woods and through the sand pit s turn

Out of the sand and weave through the hay bale s turns (my mess-up here

cost me 50 points and a spot on the USA Team)

Then over the stairs and off the culvert

90 Degree right and up the two step hill (and this is were I blew out the

second clutch of the day)

Over the top across the phone poles and down the loss gravel

Off chamber left with rocks

Across more phone poles

Sand pile hill with turn

And a jump to finish it off

Here is my attempt; I cannot believe I was being that hard on that poor bike. I know better and I know how to work the clutch but for some stupid reason my brain was in hooligan mood and I screwed up. Oh well I still came in 8th and will be out there again in 2015!
Way to go Team USA Blair Bobby and Ben!!

Awesome report and great pics. Do you have the video of the end of your final run? The video you posted ends with you half way up the hill but doesn't show how you finished and you finished pretty strong.

Awesome report and great pics. Do you have the video of the end of your final run? The video you posted ends with you half way up the hill but doesn't show how you finished and you finished pretty strong.